educators program

3D Environments as Social Learning Tools: The VIRTU@LIS Experience

Wednesday, 3 August, 8:30 - 10 am
Paper
Room 502B

New forms of dialogue and new mechanisms for introducing scientific issues to non-scientific audiences require radical design of interfaces between scientific processes and audiences. The VIRTU@LIS project has explored the use of "convivial interfaces" in games. These tools stimulate self-reflection, discussion, and possible negotiation to enhance relationships with the rest of the community that promote awareness and responsibility among citizens and grounds for personal decision-making power and social learning. These types of tools can be used individually or in a context of debate about empowerment and lifestyles strategies. They can also be used in educational contexts, to raise issues and deploy discussion. In this paper, VGAS (which relates lifestyles to climate change) and Fishu@lis (which relates personal consumption to sustainable fisheries) are presented as examples of such tools.

Tiago de Sousa Pedrosa
European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Centre